Australia struggle against South Africa quicks in first Test / Photo: Marco Longari - AFP
Australia struggle against South Africa quicks in first Test
South Africa picked two spinners, but it was their fast bowlers who did the damage as Australia limped to 187 for six on the first day of the first Test in Durban on Friday.
Marco Jansen, Wiaan Mulder and Anrich Nortje each took two wickets while spinners Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer had no success.
Left-hander Matt Renshaw led Australian resistance with a gritty 46 not out. He and captain Pat Cummins enabled the tourists to recover from a precarious 124 for six.
Renshaw heeded his captain's call to fight through tough situations, absorbing 115 balls and hitting only three boundaries. Cummins backed him up, making an unbeaten 33 not out off 72 balls.
The pair added 63 runs for the seventh wicket -– the best partnership of the innings -- before a sharp bouncer from Nortje to Renshaw appeared to convince the umpires to take the players off the field 52 minutes after tea.
Renshaw, normally an opening batsman in Test and red-ball cricket, was batting at number five and said he felt Australia had got close to "getting the foot on the throat" at times during a challenging first day.
"Batting in the middle order as I've done in one-dayers shows that I can be pretty versatile," said Renshaw.
With Australia's third wicket falling off the last ball before lunch, Renshaw knew he would be batting immediately after the interval.
"I think for me batting at five, the challenge is sitting around for a while and not batting. So I went and faced probably 20 balls in the nets at lunch when I knew I was going straight in."
Left-armer Jansen took two for 35, Mulder claimed two for 31 and Nortje, playing in his first Test in more than three years, built up impressive pace and took two for 40.
- Maddinson struggles on Test return -
It was the first time Renshaw had faced Nortje.
"He's bowling some quick balls. I'd heard a lot about some of the spells that he bowled, but I think that probably the test for any bowler whose not played for a while is coming back and bowling third, fourth spells. Hopefully we can try and get that into him," said Renshaw.
Australia's Nic Maddinson made a less successful comeback after a shock recall, having been diagonosed with testicular cancer in April 2025. The cancer spread to his lung and lymph nodes and he missed most of last year to undergo surgery and chemotherapy.
Almost 10 years after the last of his previous three Tests, Maddinson opened the batting and never looked comfortable as he struggled for 49 minutes and 33 balls before being bowled off an inside edge by Jansen without scoring.
It was the longest innings without scoring by an Australian opener in Test history, and the third longest by any opener in Test cricket.
The most fluent batting of the day was in a third wicket stand of 60 between Marnus Labuschagne (37) and Steve Smith (25).
But Labuschagne was leg before wicket to Mulder off the last ball before lunch. Smith fell three balls after the interval, caught at gully off Jansen immediately after being struck a painful blow on the right hand by the tall fast bowler.
Nortje, South Africa's fastest bowler, struck twice in three balls to dismiss Alex Carey and Beau Webster before Renshaw and Cummins dug in.
Nortje told journalists he had always believed he would be able to return to Test cricket.
Although he had not bowled more than eight overs in a match since his previous Test in March 2023, he said he had spent much of the intervening time rebuilding his action and bowling many overs in the nets.
"I haven't officially bowled many overs but I have tried to simulate things in the nets although it's never the same. It was really nice to be out there," said Nortje.
F.Peeters--RTC
